Friday, February 27, 2009

Big Numbers

Most people don't know a lot of large numbers. I myself do not know a lot of large numbers, but I know more than most people, and I am going to share some with anyone who wants to read about them. Most people know thousands, then millions, and billions. A large number of people probably even know that after billions comes trillions. But what comes next? Is it Gazillions? Bazillions? Nope, quadrillions. Here is the breakdown...not all of them, but enough to sound smart.

1,000,000,000 (1 x 10^9) One Trillion

1,000,000,000,000 (1 x 10^12) One Quadrillion

1,000,000,000,000,000 (1 x 10^15) One Quintillion

1,000,000,000,000,000,000 (1 x 10^18) One Sextillion

1,000,000,000,000,000,000,000 (1 x 10^21) One Septillion

1 x 10^24 One Octillion

1 x 10^27 One Nonillion

1 x 10^30 One Decillion

skip ahead

1 x 10^99 One duotrigintillion

1 x 10^100 (a 1 followed by 100 zeroes) Commonly called a googol (not google) it could also be called ten duotrigintillion.

1 x 10^(10^100) would be a googolplex. That would be a 1 followed by a googol of zeroes.